OBJECTIVE: To evaluate institutionalized elder women's performance in the mini-mental state examination. METHODS: This cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted among 34 elder women who were residents in a long term facility in Curitiba, PR. Data were collected with the mini-mental state examination (MMSE) and analyzed with descriptive statistics. RESULTS: Participants had a mean age of 79.82 ± 8.23 and their overall mean score on the MMSE was 16.62 ± 5.60. The mean score of performance among illiterates and literate participants were 14.90 and 19.75 points, respectively. The mean score of performance among participants aged 65 to 79 and participants aged 80 and over were 18 and 15.65 points, respectively. CONCLUSION: There were a large number of elder women (26.5%) with cognitive impairment. Lower educational level and advanced age were associated with lower scores on the mini-mental status examination.
Homes for the aged; Aged; Disability evaluation; Old age assistance
